Dings' career over?

[PaulTheSoave]

I was already frightened after The Masters it would break him mentally. He seems to play with the same lacklustre attitude as the second session in January. I doubt he will recover from this ever! Lets hope he will come back, but the odds are against him, especially this pounding coming on him at this tender age.

[hegeland]

Hold yer horses, mister. It aint over til the fat lady sings.

Seriously though, he is faced with an almost impossible task here with Ronnie playing like a dream.

He'll bounce back - at least a bit - next season.

[ferret]

I don't know he won a frame and we may see him get back into form now.

[mick]

hi i seen it myself and you have a good point but no i think it will take time sure gettin beating 6-1 bye o sullivan it is taken time but who knows.

[PaulTheSoave]

I hope you are right Hege, but I have never seen a sportsman being blown to pieces by a defeat like Ding has. Since The Masters he has not given any decent performance. It is not only Ronnie, he also lost to others as well!

Two first round exits:

malta cup, Stephen Maguire 5 - Ding 2
welsh open against Cope 1-5!

[Alex0paul]

It also doesn't help gifting frames to your opponent as he has just done.

[cueman]

I've always felt with Ding that he is a great front runner but he is very poor when behind. He seems to get in a mood, its like he expects to win and that his opponent should give him chances. At this level though, against an O'Sullivan or one of the top players in form he isn't going to get chances on a plate.

He just needs to learn how to cope when behind. He needs a back up plan, he tries to attack too much and consequently ends up giving too many chances to his opponent which puts him under more pressure. Whoever his coach is, he really needs to work on this or change because this is a major weakness in his game.

[Semih_Sayginer]

his career is far from over. a setback to the early part of it

one appearance at the crucible doent make your career over, no matter the other happenings in other bygone tournaments.

thats if he does in fact lose....(very likely)

[PaulTheSoave]

The summer interval might put things right again and lets hope for the best. Unless he recovers in the second session, I cant show my face here any more!

[Sarmu]

Well next season he won't be playing ronnie first round, and hopelly it will give him some confindence when he wins few matches

[mick]

when u look at it that way i see wat you mean i am a doherty fan and ding beat ken 3 times so its a good time to play him.......

[mick]

a long way to come back i cant see him doing it....

[missneworleans]

Yea Ding is scared of playing. But all players had crisises. And if he's really good player he has to go through it

[RaNeN]

He is only 20-21! Lots to go! Will hang around the top 16 for years to come!

[andy_drake]

Ding may have potential which he has already shown by winning three ranking events before reaching 20, but could anyone realistically expect even a player of this quality to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible debut?